Hey guys and gals! My friend and I are going to be performing in our high school talent show and we are having some trouble coming up with a routine! So I thought it best to ask you guys! What makes a good yoyo routine? What elements have to be present? Do the tricks have to be hard? Just a few questions off the top of my head. I thank you ahead of time for your responses!
Thanks
Jansen
A yoyo contest is a lot different from a school talent show. In a school talent show most of the people there dont yoyo, and wont be aware of what tricks are hard or not, complex, etc. In a school talent show you just want to do the coolest looking tricks to yuggles. Stuff like boingy boing, boomerang, picture tricks, eli hops, etc.
Consistency and BIG looking stuff. Technical stuff won’t be as impressive.
Okay, most people in a school Talent Show, like andy569 said, don’t yoyo or know anything about them. So, in that case, don’t do a bunch of long, technical, difficult tricks. Because: 1) it may bore them because they have no idea what is going on, 2) you may show frustration with yourself when trying to do a hard trick, and 3) they may want to try to figure out what you are doing, and long, technical tricks will require them to really look hard, thus making them confused.
If I were you, I would do tricks like the Skin the Hamster and Skin the Gerbil because they are simple, and, if you have learned it fast, they can be very fast. I would also do tricks like Eli Hops, Boingy-Boing, and Asian Pops would be great additions.
Also, take advantage of the fact that they know nothing about yoyoing. If you mess up, find away to continue your trick, they won’t notice the mistake unless you show it with a facial expression or action. You can also take advantage of them knowing nothing by doing a simple trick then doing some pose or something to emphasize the end of the trick so they think you did something really cool and advanced.
I hope this helps,
-Zorro
Non yoyoers love grinds and flashy binds
And dare devil neck wraps 
For a contest, follow Jack Rinca’s advice, “Do as many tricks that look hard as possible”.
For a talent show, do themed tricks. This is a performing technique that I’ve picked up from yoyo and juggling performers. You see, non yoyoers have no idea what you’re doing with pretty much any trick. It all looks the same to them.
However, non yoyoers do understand themed tricks. By “Theme”, I mean a common element in each combo. You’re going to want to make each trick about ten seconds in legnth, and make sure you’re not using one combo’s theme in another combo!
Some themes to consider…
- A very, very fast combo (Go slower on your other tricks to make the effect more intense)
- Under the leg
- Behind the back
- Guerrilla
- Mach 5
- Boing - E - Boing
- Eli Hops
- Horizontal
- Behind the head
- Raise the roof
- etc.
Then, near the end of the performance, you can tie all of the themes together to really wow the crowd.
flashy bangers with slacks are practically a must in these cases if you can do other styles such as 4a and 5a you would get a bigger crowd going dude to it being so called “unconventional” also technical doesn’t fly as easily due to it looking the same in there opinion so slacks tend to be a better option however tricks like
finger spins
grinds
magic trick
follow
anything horizontal
eli hops (if you can bounce back behind your head they tend to like this stuff)
bunny
tend to get a crowd roaring or stunned by amazement
Also, just after you pull out your most techy, flashy combo, gently walk the dog and give your cheekiest grin to the audience. They’ll love it.
Ok this really helps! Thanks guys! Do you think like 3 minutes would be enough time to do everything?
Thanks
Jansen
it depends really if your putting on A show or contest entry (as in yoyo competition) because if your entertaining a crowd you want it a little bit longer so you can pull a few jokes as you go and such to entertain the crowd.